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Contents
- Abstract
- Theoretical Background
- Interaction Ritual Theory
- Social Contagion Theories
- Conservation of Resources Theory
- Study 1: Emergent Understandings of Relational Energy
- Nomological Network and Hypothesis Development
- Relational energy and related constructs
- Perceived social support
- Leader–member exchange
- Relational energy, job engagement, and performance
- Job engagement
- Job performance
- Study 2: Relational Energy Scale Validation and Discriminant Analysis
- Participants and Procedures
- Development of Relational Energy Measure
- Item generation
- Exploratory factor analysis
- Exploratory discriminant validity analysis
- Study 3: Relational Energy, Perceived Social Support, and Employee Job Engagement
- Measures
- Relational energy
- Perceived supervisor social support
- Employee job engagement
- Controls
- Analyses and Results
- Study 4: Construct and Predictive Validity
- Participants and Procedures
- Measures
- Relational energy
- Job engagement
- Job performance
- Leader–member exchange
- Controls
- Analyses and Results
- General Discussion
- Theoretical and Empirical Contributions
- Relational mechanism of energy
- Empirical support of interaction ritual theory
- Leader influence processes
- Empirical contributions
- Limitations and Future Research
- Conclusion
Figures and Tables
Abstract
Energy is emerging as a topic of importance to organizations, yet we have little understanding of how energy can be useful at an interpersonal level toward achieving workplace goals. We present the results of 4 studies aimed at developing, validating, and testing the relational energy construct. In Study 1, we report qualitative insights from 64 individuals about the experience and functioning of relational energy in the workplace. Study 2 draws from 3 employee samples to conduct exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses on a measure of relational energy, differentiating relational energy from related constructs. To test the predictive validity of the new relational energy scale, Study 3 comprises data from employees rating the level of relational energy they experienced during interactions with their leaders in a health services context. Results showed that relational energy employees experienced with their leaders at Time 1 predicted job engagement at Time 2 (1 month later), while controlling for the competing construct of perceived social support. Study 4 shows further differentiation of relational energy from leader–member exchange (LMX), replicates the positive relationship between relational energy (Time 1) and job engagement (Time 2), and shows that relational energy is positively associated with employee job performance (Time 3) through the mechanism of...





